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Take the following sentence. 人は魚が好きだ. I thought this meant "Person is likable
fish" (I'm new at this) I was told it meant "People like fish" Why?


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2015-02-16T22:20:30.650
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2015-02-17T00:35:57.563
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question
na-adjectives
What is wrong with my translation?


AはBが好き/嫌いだ means A likes/dislikes B.

は indicates the theme and が indicate the subject, it litteraly means "About A
: B is liked".

There are many adjectives that follow this pattern in which what would be the
direct object in english is the subject in japanese.

> 私は彼が羨ましい。
>
> I envy him. "To me, he is enviable."

Not strictly an answer to your question but the AはBが + adjective structure is
also used in many cases where the verb "to have" would be used in english.

> あの女の子は背が高い。
>
> That girl is tall. "That girl has a tall height (back)", "About that girl,
> her height is tall."
>
> 犬は鼻が長い。
>
> Dogs have long noses.


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2015-02-16T23:34:43.953
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2015-02-16T23:34:43.953
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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